It Couldn't Get Any Worse
by SlytherinOwl
Summary: Tony was woken up by Jarvis who told him he had visitors from Asgard, three years after the fight in New York. He should have known his day was going to end badly. When they explained that they were supposed give him a present from the Allfather, he should have been more suspicious. And when the present turned out to be breathing, he was sure that his life couldn't get any worse.
1. An Unpleasant Surprise

Saying Tony was annoyed when he woke up would have been a severe understatement. His head felt heavy and as though it had been hit by a hammer – which might actually have happened and was not just because of his hangover – and Jarvis' loud voice made him wince.

"What was that?" Tony asked groggily and slowly sat up. How did he even end up in his bed yesterday? He just remembered being in a club downtown. A habit he recently picked up again, the clubbing and drinking until he finally forgot the important things in life.

"I said 'there is a visitor for you, Sir'." The A.I.'s voice rang out clearly.

"Well, tell him I'm sorry but I can't right now, I'm busy. Tell them to schedule a meeting or something." The inventor drawled and let his head fall back onto the pillow. Not worth getting up for that.

"I am afraid that is not possible." Even before he could ask why the hell it was not possible, Jarvis turned on a video stream, obviously coming from his own living room.

At least he suspected that was his living room, even though he really hoped that these figures were not actually in HIS tower. And much less in HIS living room.

Five tall men, clad in what looked like a grotesque cosplay of what Thor usually wears, stood there, each looking grim and as though their morning was worse than Tony's. Which he was pretty sure couldn't be possible.

The genius swore and got out of bed as quickly as he could manage. While he slowly put on his jeans he was pleased to see that he was indeed wearing underpants. Last night apparently wasn't as disastrous as it could have turned out to be.

Picking up a T-shirt from the floor, without bothering to check whether it was clean, he moved out of the room and just put it on when he entered the area that was supposed to be a comfortable area to watch television, read or deal with pleasant stuff. Not with these guys.

"Hey chaps, lovely meeting you, I'm afraid Thor's not here, so if you could be on your way, that'd be great." His voice didn't sound as commanding as he would have liked, but he really didn't feel as though he was in the mood or shape to put up with this.

"Man of Iron" – Tony tried to not roll his eyes too obviously – "we are here on behalf of the Allfather, not to see the mighty Thor." He almost snorted when he the title Thor had been given.

"Then I'm afraid you ended up at the wrong guy's place, sorry, see you later!" He couldn't imagine any reason for the Allfather to send creepy guys after him. He didn't do anything this bad. At least nothing he could remember.

He wanted to turn away again, but before he could take a single step a huge calloused hand wrapped itself around his wrist. Shit.

"Man of Iron, the Allfather is deeply concerned with the chaos and havoc that was brought upon Midgard and your personal involvement in apprehending Loki Laufeyson. He thus wants to bestow you with a present that he hopes will quench any animosity you might have for Asgard. We are here to deliver this token of friendship." The man who spoke – and never bothered with introducing himself – had a deep intimidating voice and was built like a wardrobe. A bloody huge wardrobe.

"That's… uh… nice of him, I suppose? Thank you?" He could already imagine all the horrible 'presents' that would need five wardrobes to deliver it.

Then again, it came three years after the actual fight that took place, so is the present actually a present?

"No thanks are needed, Man of Iron."

Tony only realized now that the man had dropped his wrist at some point and he wanted to take a step back, but the Speaker waved him over. Reluctantly Tony followed two steps behind as the men seemingly moved as one.

The glass door to the balcony opened itself and Tony silently thanked Jarvis that he surely stopped his belongings from being destroyed and letting those guys in before they got a chance to smash the glass door.

It took him a second to realize that it was raining heavily and that the sky looked as though a thunderstorm was brewing. The first raindrops hit him when Jarvis turned the lights on the balcony on.

The five men walked to the far end of the balcony and stood in a circle around something black lying on the ground. If Tony had said that he wasn't curious as hell, it would have been an outright lie.

Slowly he took a couple of steps in their direction and squinted a bit. "Jarvis, I need more light."

When the bright lights got turned on the genius abruptly stopped. All the color was drained from his face, he suddenly felt the cold water drenching his clothing.

That was a freaking human. Lying under some black cloth, on his balcony. Outside in the cold.

He started thinking about how long he'd been inside, arguing with the creepy wardrobes and getting clothed. It was absolutely freezing and they had a human lying around in heavy rain on his balcony. Even the usually big mouthed Tony was at a complete loss for words.

When he realized that he was wasting time again he almost sprinted to the figure on the ground.

"Have you completely lost your fucking minds?! A human as a fucking present?!" Tony was seething and kneeled down next to the figure. He could neither make out whether the figure was alive nor whether it was a man or woman, but what- and whoever that was didn't move at all.

"Yes, a human." The Speaker actually threw his head back and laughed a booming laughter that could have competed with Thor's absurd way of laughing. The others chuckled quietly. "Do you accept this present?"

Tony was surprised they gave him a choice. "What happens if I don't?"

"Then he will be disposed of." The booming voice sounded strangely satisfied.

"You can't just dispose of him! That's a human!" Tony was completely outraged. He didn't need to ask what they meant with these words, so much for having a choice.

"That is was the Allfather decreed, that is what is going to happen." For the first time Tony actually properly looked into the man's face. He had a long, braided beard and grey piercing eyes that glinted with mirth. He was obviously enjoying this quite a lot.

When the Speaker started lifting his arm and waving at the other four men, who stepped closer to the figure, Tony started shouting.

"STOP! I will accept. I will accept. For fuck's sake." He might be a horrible person, but not even he would let someone be killed if he could stop it.

The Speaker met Tony's eyes. "Very well, Man of Iron. If you reconsider, let Heimdall know. We would be happy to take care of this, if the present were to turn out as being unpleasant for you."

Tony wanted to ask so many questions, but the men already walked across the balcony and were gone with a ray of light – that left an imprint on his stone floor – when he had gathered his wits.

That's how Tony ended up with either a dead or at least unconscious person on his balcony in the pouring rain, freezing to death while a thunderstorm was brewing.

And when he thought it could not possibly get any worse he decided to take a closer look at what he assumed was the figures face. The man – he was positive by now that this was definitely not a woman – was lying on his side and his head was lying on the floor, while being mostly covered in the completely soaked, black cloth that the weird people that delivered him must have dropped on him for some reason. He slowly peeled the cloth back and stopped moving.

Even with all the wounds and injuries it was impossible for him to not recognize this face, a face that was still haunting him in his nightmares.

Loki.

Oh, how Tony wished he had muted Jarvis and not left his bed.


	2. Let The Stray Dog In

Tony's first instinct was to call S.H.I.E.L.D., but a small voice in the back of his head kept him back.

Maybe that voice was insanity. Maybe curiosity. Or maybe, just maybe it was pity with the crazy lunatic; someone really had done a number on him after all.

As much as Tony wanted to think about who he should call and whether to call anyone at all to help him, he probably should make sure that his "present" was actually alive first.

"Jarvis, what state is he in?" He didn't dare to touch him before he didn't know how much damage the man could do if he should wake up.

"Mr. Laufeyson's body temperature seems to be critically low, Sir. Accordingly his breathing and pulse have slowed down and are shallow. The exact measurements are..." Jarvis voice rang out clearly but was interrupted by Tony.

"What about his injuries?" He swallowed. He could only see part of Loki's face in the still relative dark, but if that was anything to go by, the man had taken quite the beating.

"His lips seem to be sewn together and the wounds are most likely infected."

Tony started at that and leaned closer to Loki's face. It was smeared in a dark liquid which he suspected was blood, and coated in dirt. But sure enough, in the middle of the blood stains you could see a thread going through Loki's lips, positively sealing them.

He realized that he would need to somehow drag the unconscious megalomaniac inside to further inspect his face.

But Jarvis hadn't been quite finished.

"His right femur is broken and his right arm is dislocated. He also has four wounds that probably stem from stabbing and require medical attention as soon as possible. Other than that there are approximately forty-five bruises on his back and about…"

"I understand, Jarvis." Tony cut his A.I. off. He honestly did not want to hear the rest.

The important thing was, that the lunatic wasn't about to die in the next couple of minutes.

Tony let his gaze wander to the balcony door and the rough stones that covered the distance between them and their sanctuary. He couldn't possibly drag Loki over the ground unless he wanted to make his condition worse. And only his slightly sadistic part wanted to do that, the more reasonable part of his brain was quite adamant about not kicking someone who was already on the ground.

Thus Tony got up from his knees, walked a few steps around Loki until he was standing next to his back and crouched down. It was awkward to pick the demigod up, especially given that Tony didn't really have another option than doing it bridal style.

So when he had brought one of his arms under Loki's knees and the other under his shoulders, he lifted him up and started walking quickly in the direction of his living room, before he let the man fall to the ground by accident. Even though he had to admit that the chances of that happening were slimmer than he had thought, Loki seemed to weigh next to nothing.

Another problem to add to his list of Loki-related problems that he really shouldn't have to deal with.

As soon as Tony stepped over the threshold he sighed in relief. At least they were back inside and out of the cold rain.

But what to do with the man that was hanging limply in his arms?

He couldn't exactly place him on the living room couch. Not that the image of Clint stopping by for a surprise visit and walking in on Loki sleeping on Tony's couch wasn't hilarious as hell, but Tony was pretty sure that that was not the appropriate curse of action.

Also, if he did that it would have been completely unnecessary to even try and keep Loki alive because Clint would kill him on sight.

Tony walked in the direction of one of the guest bedrooms, thanked Jarvis who had opened the door and slowly placed Loki's battered body on the bed.

"Jarvis, switch the lights outside off, please." Then he leaned down and took a long scrutinizing look at Loki's face.

He was paler than when he had seen him last, which was really saying something. The guy could've scared death even back then, and now his skin seemed almost transparent, you could see the veins shining through. The skin around his eyes was red and seemed raw though, as if someone had poured acid onto it.

Loki's hair was shorter than it used to be, it looked like it had been shaven off roughly and his cheek bones were so prominent that Tony kind of expected his skin to just rip open above them.

By far the worst in Loki's face were his lips though, as Jarvis had told him they were sewn shut, the holes for the thread being as close to the lips as possible. It also seemed to be a really rough thread and it was obvious that Loki had struggled, tried to defend himself and tried to talk after that had happened, the skin around the holes was covered in splits and cuts, while the holes themselves were red and looked painfully swollen while yellow liquid was oozing out of one of them.

Tony was sure he couldn't eat any breakfast today.

He finally lifted the black cloth that had covered Loki's body off. The battered man was naked and covered in bruises and scars from head to toe. He was so thin that his ribs were sticking out painfully while his hipbones were just as prominent as his cheek bones.

Tony moved to Loki's right side when he remembered what Jarvis had said about other injuries.

Loki's right thigh was definitely swollen, and Tony almost vomited when he saw something poking out on the side of the leg.

For fuck's sake, the bone was sticking out of his freaking leg! The genius closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten. When he opened them again the leg was unfortunately still the same.

Now he definitely had to call a doctor, there was no way in hell that he could fix that. Not at all.

But he decided to first check out the other injuries that Jarvis had listed earlier.

Taking another step to the bed, Tony leaned down to inspect Loki's shoulder. It had a peculiar shape, and Tony had seen this type of injury often enough to know what to do, so he took Loki's hand, and slowly moved his arm to the side until that it was hanging over the edge of the bed. After repositioning himself the inventor slowly but steadily pulled the arm away from the body until he felt the muscles stretching and the bone gliding back into its usual position. The arm still would have to be kept still for some time, as he knew from personal experience, but the worst pain should be gone if Loki should decide to wake up at some point.

Maybe he should be worried about Loki not waking up in the first place, relocating a shoulder hurt like hell.

Then he remembered that Jarvis had mentioned stab wounds. One was easily enough located on the left side of his upper body, but it didn't seem to be bleeding and considering that Tony wanted to call a doctor in a few minutes either way, he didn't dare touch it.

"Where are the other stab wounds?" he asked with a voice that sounded every bit as tired as he felt.

"One is on his lower abdomen, located on the side, the other two are on his back. I would suggest medical attention immediately; Mr. Laufeyson seems to be going into shock."

For a second Tony felt like laughing. Going into shock? He wasn't even conscious, for heaven's sake.

Then he realized that this was not what Jarvis had meant. Loki's skin had become ashy grey, and sweat was starting to form on his forehead, which given that he was out in the cold for so long was indeed a tad concerning.

"Shit!" Should he call a doctor he could bribe or one he trusted?

He didn't have terribly much time to decide what to do though, so the latter it was. "Please call Bruce, tell him it is important and that he is needed here as soon as possible."

"Mr. Banner most likely is already on the way to the tower, he has an appointment in the laboratory on floor 10 at 9 o'clock, but I will notify him and reschedule his appointment." Tony was so happy that he had created Jarvis. And that Bruce apparently actually went to his appointments, unlike himself who either skipped them or was way too late for it to be an accident.

While waiting for someone who could actually help, Tony didn't dare to turn Loki onto his stomach to check the injuries on his back, but he jogged into the bathroom to get a cloth and press it onto the injury on Loki's side that he had missed earlier even though there was quite a bit of blood coming out of it.

But with all the blood and dirt on Loki's body it was probably difficult to tell a difference between what was coming from other places and what actually was an injury, so he shouldn't blame himself too much. And it was Loki after all, he shouldn't blame himself for anything in the first place.

When he came in contact with Loki's bare skin the sudden realization how cold it was hit him and the inventor started cursing himself again. Obviously he was cold, he had been lying outside in the freaking cold rain. Hadn't he thought about that just mere minutes ago? He dropped the cloth he was holding and went to fetch pillows. He slowly lifted up Loki's left leg and put the pillows under his foot, but didn't dare to touch his right leg. One leg up would have to be good enough for this shock patient. Now he grabbed a blanket that was lying on the bed's end and put it over Loki's lower body and torso.

"Jarvis, please turn up the heating." Not just Loki needed warming up, he himself had been out in the rain and was drenched.

That's how he ended up sitting next to the crazy demigod who tried to conquer earth, and who was currently bleeding onto his guest bed while he had picked up the cloth and pressed it to one of the wounds.

He remembered how he had suspected that his day couldn't get worse when he was still on the balcony. Seeing the broken body in front of him gave him the impression he had been wrong about that, it could apparently be much worse indeed.

Now he was just praying that Loki wouldn't wake up and try to kill him. And to be honest, he didn't fancy Loki waking up while he was still alone with him either.

Or having to talk to him in general. Or playing his nursemaid. Maybe he should reconsider calling S.H.I.E.L.D..


	3. With A Little Help From My Friend

3 – With A Little Help From My Friend

The minutes that passed felt like hours, and Tony was eventually convinced that Loki would be dead by the time Bruce arrived at the Tower. Jarvis continued to give him status updates, the God of Chaos seemed to be getting by, but Jarvis also kept pointing out why medical attention was highly recommended.

The ticking of the clock was like an assault for Tony's ears. And suddenly, in the silence that followed Jarvis' latest status update – a soft _ding_ interrupted Tony's panic.

He jumped up, not dropping the bloody cloth, and ran straight from the room to the elevator.

"Bruce!" He heard his own voice, but he hadn't even realized that he had uttered a single word.

The startled scientist looked Tony up and down, and the worried frown hadn't left his face for a second when his eyes turned down to see the blood soaked cloth in Tony's hand and the frown returned with full force.

"Tony, what happened?!" His voice was very quiet, an indicator for how tense he was, he did not want to snap, but seeing the bloodied cloth had startled him.

"Okay, so, I would totally tell you the whole story right now, buuut there's a tiny problem, and it's currently under shock and slowly bleeding out in one of the bedrooms, so it'd be lovely if we could discuss all that later?" Tony spoke so fast that he almost stumbled over his words, something that - given his erratic speak pattern - was concerning.

"What?! Where is the person?! What happened?"

While Tony dragged Bruce to the guestroom where Loki was still lying unconsciously in the bed, he gave him a short summary of what had happened earlier this morning, promising he would fill in all the blanks later, and warning Bruce, that he please – please! – should not get upset, even though it was Loki (at that point Bruce had stopped and just blinked – once, twice, then it seemed he had decided that he wanted to hear the full story before he Hulked out – but then followed after Tony).

When Bruce saw Loki's beaten body the scientist sharply drew in a breath, then looked over to Tony, who already had told Jarvis to give Bruce the details about the Trickster's condition. When the A.I.'s voice had gotten quiet again Bruce turned to Tony.

"I am not that kind of doctor." He gave Tony a skeptical look when he saw Tony's raised eyebrow, Tony knew that Bruce had been medically trained, for example in Calcutta. "He should go to a proper hospital."

"Bruce, you know what'll happen! S.H.I.E.L.D. will find him, and I reckon they're keen to get their hands on him! If they find out that he's here, they'll flip!" Not even Tony could honestly say that he would wish that upon Loki.

Bruce seemed to be in deep thought. "I will need some supplies."

Tony nodded. "The infirmary should have everything."

Bruce got paper and pen and wrote down a list of supplies that he would need, then he threw Tony out of the room. Apparently he thought Tony couldn't be as helpful as Tony thought he could be.

Getting the supplies didn't take Tony half as long as deciphering Bruce's chicken scratch did. Well, he didn't really get the stuff, he told Jarvis to make someone from the Infirmary bring the stuff up to his floor. The young man that was standing inside of the elevator a few minutes later gave Tony a confused look but obviously didn't dare to ask what the scientist was up to. Usually people from the lower floors couldn't even go to this floor, he was quite happy to see it so he didn't dare ruining his chances of seeing this floor again.

When the man was gone again Tony delivered several cardboard boxes to the guestroom. He couldn't even name half of the stuff he saw in there.

As soon as Tony had set the boxes down, Bruce very politely – much to his chagrin – made him leave again.

After waiting for about two minutes (patience wasn't Tony's strung suit) Tony decided that just waiting here wouldn't make Bruce work faster, so he made his way to his lab to busy himself.

Two hours of tinkering with a new blaster for a new prototype of his suit and quite a bit of thinking "what to do with the crazy lunatic that Bruce is currently stitching up?" without coming to a conclusion Jarvis told him that Bruce was asking for him.

Tony rubbed his forehead, he really, really wanted a drink. But Bruce might just kill him if he found him with any alcoholic beverage now, and he'd rather not risk his friend being charged with murder.

He stepped into the corridor, walked up to the elevator and pressed the button for his floor. When the doors opened again Bruce was already waiting for him.

"Tony…" Bruce trailed off.

"Come on, Jarvis will show you what happened." Tony led Bruce into the living room. When both men had sat down Tony handed Bruce a Stark tablet. "There you go."

After that Bruce was mostly quiet while he watched the security feed from the early morning. He rolled his eyes at Tony's attitude (not that he could blame him, Tony knew he had behaved ridiculously), and started to tense when the Wardrobes had led Tony outside.

"He was out there the whole time? In that state?!" Bruce was obviously agitated.

"I didn't know that!" Tony tried to defend himself, but before he could continue, Bruce interrupted him.

"I know, Tony." Then he went back to watching the video. He flinched when Tony carried Loki inside, and when Tony tried to do some good when checking Loki's injuries.

After some time he sighed.

"I thought…" He trailed off, but Tony picked the sentence up. "… that he would maybe be thrown into prison for the rest of his days, and kept there to rot? Yeah, me too."

"I never expected…"

"… that they'd torture him and then dump him on my balcony? Yeah, me neither."

Bruce shot Tony an annoyed look.

"How is he?" The humor was gone from Tony's voice. He had hoped that he'd never have to see the crazy demigod again, but he did not wish torture upon anyone, it simply hit too close to home for him to even think about the possibility of it happening.

"He's not doing too well, but he will live. Jarvis gave you a pretty good summary of how severe his injuries are, and he's not healing on his own. I am no expert on Aesir, but that's what usually happens with Thor. I suspect they did what they once did to Thor." A permanent frown seemed to be etched into Bruce's face at this point.

"You mean they took his powers? I thought as much." It wasn't a lie, he had suspected it when Loki didn't wake up.

"It will take some time until all his injuries are healed. I can't tell you yet how long it'll take." Bruce tried to explain Tony how to proceed with the injuries, Tony just nodded, Jarvis could always fill in the blanks after all.

"So you have not told S.H.I.E.L.D. yet? Or Fury?" That's why Tony liked Bruce so much. He was visibly shocked by seeing Loki, and he had more than just a bit of disliking for said demigod, but he had first done all he could have done to help and only after that he asked about things like S.H.I.E.L.D. or the angry Director.

"No. And I don't think it'd be a good idea to involve them right now. I want to ask Thor what all this is about first." He had after all spent some thought on what to do next while Bruce was still with Loki, and he was sure that notifying Fury would lead to Loki being thrown in a cell somewhere, or worse, punished to Fury's liking. Tony was sure that Loki was still dangerous, but he was also sure that what had been done to him (he didn't even think of Loki's lack of powers) had been punishment enough.

Bruce slowly nodded. "Yes, I don't think him being a lab rat would be a good idea right now." The scientist tried not to even think of what else they could do. Then he continued. "I can't stay here, Tony. I think you're doing the right thing, but I can't stay."

It was unnecessary to ask why. Bruce wanted to help, but being confronted with Loki over a long period of time would be tough on him, and no one wanted Bruce to lose his temper.

After a few moments Tony asked "Will you be nearby?" Bruce nodded.

"I'll stop by tomorrow, after my appointment in the lab."

Bruce and Tony stood up. "Tony, you'll need to check the bandages, I will change them tomorrow, but you have to make sure..." He was interrupted by Jarvis.

"Sir, Mr. Laufeyson seems to be waking up."

Both men turned to the bedroom Loki was in, Tony reached the door first and opened it. The beaten man's hands twitched, just looking at him seemed painful. At least there was no feeding tube down his throat (Bruce had been sure that Loki would wake up sooner rather than later), and he was able to breath on his own. But he was still quite the sight. Bandaged from head to toe, one arm in a sling (it was the arm that had been dislocated), and even though the thread going through his lips was gone, the skin around his mouth looked like horrifying Halloween make-up.

And then Tony's eyes wandered to the place where Loki's eyes were supposed to be, was covered in antiseptic gauze.

"What happened to his eyes?" Tony whispered in the direction of Bruce, who was more or less hiding behind the half-opened door.

"I am not completely sure, but I think something like acid seems to have been dripped onto his eyes. I don't know how bad the damage is, but the skin of the eyes itself need to heal properly, and him opening and closing his eyes won't be helping."

And then Loki Laufeyson, God of Chaos and Trickery, prince of Asgard, woke up and Anthony Stark, genius and scientist, thought hell was about to break loose.


	4. Panic and No Talking

_And then Loki Laufeyson, God of Chaos and Trickery, prince of Asgard, woke up and Anthony Stark, genius and scientist, thought hell was about to break loose._

Loki's body had turned unnaturally still. Both Tony and Bruce were sure that he had woken up, but for a few seconds no one in the guest bedroom moved. Tony tried to assess the situation, but the only thing he was sure of, was that the fact that the antiseptic gauze kept Loki from opening his eyes wouldn't work in their favor.

The God of Chaos seemed to have finished coming up with a plan in all of three seconds, and the next thing happening was Loki ripping the things covering his eyes off and jumping out of bed.

At least Tony was quite sure that this was the intended outcome of his actions.

The reality was not as kind to Loki. Given that one of his shoulders had been relocated, he was barely able to move it, and even though he had managed to rip the gauze off with his other hand, he could not stabilize his upper body where he had pushed himself of the bed with his damaged arm and thus fell back down. He also had tried to push his legs to one side, but obviously hadn't taken his broken femur into account, and just ended up pushing himself almost out of bed, while clearly trying not to show how much all this movement must have hurt.

Tony was a tad impressed with the fight-or-flight reflexes Loki still possessed, even though taking his wounds into account he _shouldn't_ be moving around at all. He was surprised that the deranged demigod _could_ even move around.

Bruce was apparently less fascinated with Loki's ability to move and more focused on keeping the additional damage the man was doing to himself by moving to a minimum, he was at Loki's side a second later.

He reached out to touch him, but at this point Loki's eyes snapped open and Bruce stilled.

It was obvious that he had expected this. Probably even checked it out beforehand. Tony hadn't.

Loki's eyes were almost completely white. You could see where his iris was supposed to be, but a thick white fog was clouding his eyes. He was blind.

Tony was sure he had not just lost his appetite for breakfast, but for every meal this day. And maybe the next day as well.

What else had they done to him?

"Loki –" But whatever else Bruce had wanted to say, he never got further. As soon as he had touched Loki, the panic radiating off the demigod was palpable. He desperately tried to get his arm out of Bruce's grasp and his breathing pattern turned erratic.

"Reindeer Games, calm down!" Tony did feel quite helpless. Loki hadn't even attempted to speak yet, he couldn't see and barely move and yet tried with every fiber of his being to get away from them.

And of course Loki did what every person in Tony's close proximity usually did: He completely ignored him.

He was still frantically trying to get away from Bruce, his head turning from left to right and back again. He was trying to hear them, given that he couldn't see them - which seemed to be another source of panic altogether if the clawing at his eyes with his free hand was any indication – possibly to assess how many people were there and just how much of a threat they were.

Bruce threw him a dark look and waved him over. "I'll be back in a second. I'll get something to calm him."

These words were apparently exactly the wrong thing to say, because while Loki dropped his efforts to get rid of his own eyes he doubled his efforts to just get the hell away from Bruce. The doctor looked as exhausted as Tony felt and motioned for the scientist to take over and make sure that Loki didn't make his condition any worse.

When Tony stepped closer Bruce let go of Loki's arm and left the room in a quick pace. Tony stopped next to Loki, who had changed his tactics and tried to shift as far away from the side of the bed he was currently on as possible.

He didn't get very far though, given that both his right arm and his right leg were of no use and he would have needed them to get to the left side of the bed. At least when he couldn't just turn over.

"Stop moving, you're only making it worse." Tony was frowning, his voice sounding rough even to his own ears. The situation really would have been less disconcerting if Loki just said something. Literally anything, be it an insult, a threat or a cookie recipe. He didn't care at this point, but his silence freaked Tony out.

Loki obviously didn't listen to Tony – again! –, but if his pained expression was any indication the adrenaline that had kept him going after he woke was slowly losing the fight against the pain he was in.

It took another minute for Loki to stop trying reaching the end of the bed – mainly because he was just not getting anywhere and just hurt himself more – but now he focused his energy on trying to claw the bandages off that were wrapped around his body.

Without thinking much about it Tony gripped both of Loki's wrists. He needed to keep the guy from hurting himself, and he wouldn't let someone bleed to death in HIS tower, just because said someone didn't like the pattern of his bandages.

Of course Loki was not happy, he started trying to get out of Tony's grasp, but he had no chance against his iron grip. And Tony had several advantages over Loki in this situation. He knew their surroundings, he had Jarvis, one of his best friends who just so happened to have massive anger management issues was next door… and he could actually see who and what he was up against.

Bruce still took his time, so the scientist thought he should try to calm the demigod. At least a teeny-weeny bit.

"Loki, listen. You are NOT in danger. No danger. At all. Nowhere in sight. We are trying to help you. And I know this sounds absolutely fucking weird coming from me, but we really do. Hey, see, we" – he didn't want to admit that it was mainly Bruce – "tried to stitch you up! You can even use your mouth again!"

He wasn't sure whether Loki was actually listening or just losing his consciousness, but he stopped moving quite as much.

Tony would never get to know which one it actually was, Bruce had returned without him noticing and gave Loki an injection with something that Tony couldn't even pronounce. Or spell.

As soon as he felt the needle prick his skin, Loki was trying to get away from Tony again, trying to fight. Even though he – for once – stood not even the slightest chance. Not without any of his powers.

This time the despair was clearly etched onto the demigod's face. Tony couldn't help but feel bad while he and Bruce waited for the medication to kick in and make Loki fall asleep. It luckily didn't take as long as they anticipated, so after a couple of minutes Loki's breathing started to even out again and he stopped fighting. Tony slowly let Loki's arms go.

"I'm sorry, I should have expected a reaction like this." Bruce was clearly upset with himself.

"Dude, it's not as though I expected it either." Tony's gaze was still fixed on Loki.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" The doctor's right eyebrow slowly wandered up his forehead while he stared at the scientist.

"It's not as though I have much of a choice." Tony didn't dare to look at Bruce when he spoke. He still remembered what the Main Wardrobe had said. If he didn't "accept" this "present", they would dispose of him. And he wasn't sure just how much attention they were paying now, they had said that Heimdall was watching though.

Bruce through him another look but didn't comment. Instead he started checking whether Loki had further harmed himself. He put antiseptic gauze back onto the demigod's eyes, checked over the bandages and the broken femur. When both Bruce and Jarvis came to the conclusion that two of the stab wounds had started bleeding a little again but no further harm was done, Bruce and Tony left the room.

"Are you sure I can leave you with him? Can't you call someone else? Steve? Natasha?" But even while he asked, Tony could see that he realized either of those two in the same tower as Loki would be a bad idea. Even if it were for two entirely different reasons. And he didn't even consider calling Clint for absolutely obvious reasons.

Tony ignored his suggestions.

"Should we, I don't know, fixate him somehow, so that he can't harm himself when he wakes up?" The scientist seemed nervous about that possibility.

"Tony, I don't know whether that's a good idea. I don't think he will be any calmer when he wakes up and his arms are bound. He probably won't be able to move too much either way, you saw that he didn't even manage to sit up. It is possible that he will try to get rid of his bandages though, you have to keep an eye on that." Bruce looked as tired as Tony felt.

"Bruce, thank you for your help. Really, thanks. I would have had no idea what to do without you."

The scientist and the doctor stood in Tony's living room for a little while before Bruce actually did leave. He promised Tony again to stop by tomorrow morning and then left the scientist to suffer on his own.

When the elevator doors closed Tony let himself fall down onto the sofa in the living room. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He just knew he had to talk to Thor, but that meant he needed to get a hold of the elusive demigod first.

He tried calling Thor's sort-of-girlfriend, but she didn't answer her phone. Hopefully she would call him back when she saw the missed call. The other possible option was calling out to this Heimdall guy, but after what the Wardrobe's earlier had said he wasn't sure that he was on his side in this situation.

But what else could he do, that didn't involve the alcohol he so badly wanted to drink? Bruce would definitely kill him if he ran off to a bar now. Or drank as much as he wanted to. The fact that it was just about two o'clock in the afternoon also wasn't in his favor at all.

For all of two seconds Tony considered calling Pepper, but that idea went right out of the window. She had fled – not that he could blame her, any sane person would have done that – and even left the company. Finding a new CEO had been one hell of a pain, but he had succeeded about one month after Pepper had left. It's not as though a job at Stark Industries was not desirable, but Tony didn't trust his new CEO even nearly half as much as he had trusted Pepper.

He took another half an hour to ponder his options. Surprisingly enough, he came up with nothing besides keeping Loki away from the public eye – and Shield – and waiting for Thor to show up.

Tony groaned out in utter frustration when he realized that the worst was yet to come. Loki was still out of it, but he was sure that the behavior he exhibited earlier when he woke up was just the start.

When he was sure he would not rip his hair out anytime soon, he went back to a sitting position on the couch.

There were several things he needed to do.

Find out what the hell was going on. Find out why the hell he was stuck with Reindeer Games. Find out where the hell said Reindeer Games had been and what had happened to him. Keep Shield, Fury and Clint away from Loki – these encounters would surely end up with murder. Depending on the murdered party that might be in Tony's favor, but he was sure he would get in trouble for it, so he should try to prevent that.

And he should try to not let his company smash into the ground.

Oh.

And keep the crazy demigod from somehow killing anyone.

Gosh, as if his life wasn't already enjoying enough.


	5. Trust, Lack Thereof And Angry Yelling

He could not remember the last time he was woken up as early as he had been that day by the wardrobes. Thus, when midday came he was already tired and just wanted to have a nap. The still unresolved god problem in his guestroom kept him awake though, he was waiting for Loki to come to again and start another – albeit somewhat understandable – tantrum.

Tony dragged his rough hand over his face and rubbed his tired eyes.

Seconds and minutes seemed to tick by far slower than they usually did. It was just half past one in the afternoon when Tony decided he could not sit on this couch and feel sorry for himself all day. He would go and continue to try and come up with solutions for his half-god-problem in the lab.

Finally, time seemed to be getting by at a normal pace again, surrounded by his machines he did not notice how afternoon grew into evening or when evening turned into night.

It was quarter to twelve when he decided that even though he still had no appetite whatsoever from seeing Loki's wounds earlier, he should probably still try to get something into his stomach before going to try and sleep.

Jarvis – for once – seemed to approve and after Tony had at least managed to get a small slice of toast into himself, he went to his bedroom.

"If anything occurs, tell me, Jarvis," he intoned.

"Of course, Sir."

Sleep did not come easy for Tony this night. Well, truth being told, it usually did not come easy to him either, but this night his worries kept him up longer than they usually did.

When he finally fell asleep, he had been so tired that he could not even form proper thoughts anymore, he just drifted in and out.

Way before he would have liked to get up, Jarvis voice ripped him from one of his more peaceful slumbers.

"Sir, Mr. Laufeyson seems to be waking up," the AI's voice could be heard, "immediate attention seems to be recommended."

Tony let out a low groan. His hands rubbed his face for just a couple of seconds, then he rolled himself slowly out of bed.

He had been reduced to being a fucking babysitter.

Not bothering with grabbing any other clothes Tony shuffled from his bedroom to the guestroom. He took immense care to make no overly loud, sudden noises but to not be completely silent as to not startle the God of Chaos.

The lights in the guestroom were dimmed, and Tony guessed that Jarvis had switched them on sorely for his sake – it was not as if Loki would know the difference.

Speaking about Loki, he was lying on the bed just as Tony had last seen him, but he seemed unnaturally still and his breathing could not be described as being anything close to peaceful.

He was awake.

"Loki, can you hear me?" Tony asked quietly and slowly and carefully made his way over to the bed. Lying in it, Loki seemed to be a miniature of his former self.

The god gave no indication that he had heard or understood Tony.

"I promise, you are not in danger here, we will not hurt you – Bruce is not even here right now, and I promise I will not hurt you either." Tony was quite proud how calm he sounded, even if he really was anything but.

Loki's earlier tantrum had shown that even if he did not have any of his old powers, was heavily wounded and could only properly move half his body, he would do anything to get the hell away from him.

Loki still did not move.

"Okay, soooo… I suppose I should fill you in with what happened?" Tony asked and scratched his head. He was standing next to the bed but was still keeping his distance to the demigod.

When no reaction came, he figured that it might as well have been agreement.

In a few short sentences, he summarized how he had been dropped off by weird wardrobes, had had severe injuries and how Bruce had stitched him up.

"I don't know whether you even remember waking up earlier, but that was quite the mess. Please try not to move too much, you will disturb your injuries otherwise."

When no reaction came – again! – Tony threw his hands in the air and let out a huff.

"I need to check your bandages now. I will not hurt you." He really tried to sound reassuring.

When his hand touched Loki the other man flinched violently. The movement seemed to disturb his wounds and Tony could see the line's in his face going deeper for a second.

The stab wounds seemed to be as fine as they could be expected to be, there had been slight bleeding yesterday but nothing since then. Tony was not sure what to check for with the femur, but he saw no bone sticking out under the bandage, so he counted that as a positive thing. Bruce had mentioned that apparently, Loki would need a brace for the femur to heal properly, but there had been too much swelling around the area yesterday to apply it.

When Tony carefully peeled back the gauze over a thin hand tried to bat his hand away. Only then did Tony register Loki's apparent discomfort, his face was taunt, his hand shaking.

"I just want to check that it hasn't gotten worse. I promise."

Tony tried to peel it off again, but this time Loki was thrashing more violently, even if his muffled cry meant that he obviously had hurt himself in his panic to get away.

His patience fading Tony gripped Loki's wrist with one hand and pressed another hand against his shoulder, pinning him down.

"Look, I have to check it. I won't intentionally hurt you and I think you are hurting yourself more right now. Please stop moving, reindeer games." The hand that had Loki pinned on the bed went to the gauze Loki still seemed to tense up, but with one hand still in Tony's grip and the other in the bandage there was nothing he could do.

Tony put fresh gauze upon Loki's eyes, they really did not look well.

"There, that's done." Tony slowly put Loki's wrist down on the bed. He studied Loki's face intently, his eyes settling on the ripped tissue around his lips.

"I will apply something Bruce gave me for your lips, alright? You know that you can try to talk again, Reindeer Games?" Tony was rambling now, because it seemed if Loki knew what to come he did not try to put up a fight, or at least not as much as before. Which was, Tony had to admit, understandable. He could not see anything and was, for all he knew, in the hands of the enemy, for heaven's sake! The last time he was confronted with Tony or Bruce he had thrown one of the two out of a window and the other had put a Loki-shaped hole in the floor.

When Tony was pretty sure his nursemaid duties were done, he thought about what else could help Loki.

"Would you like to drink something? You should drink something." Tony was pretty sure that the demigod had not noticed the IV yet, which was definitely better that way, nor the catheter that took care of his other needs.

Tony left the guestroom and came back with a glass of water.

Loki still had not acknowledged what Tony said but could not pretend to be asleep either, since he had freaked out just a few minutes earlier. Tony thought for a second, then carefully grabbed Loki's hand and put the water glass in it.

Loki wanted to move it, but his hand was shaking so badly, that he almost spilled it before Tony could reach for it again.

"Okay, we'll do this another way." There was a frown on Loki's features when Tony left the room again.

"So, there is a straw in this glass, and I am going to help you drink, alright?" No answer, but when Tony put the straw to Loki's lips, the demigod carefully and painfully opened them. It seemed to be more work than it should be, but after a few seconds Loki took a hesitant sip.

He slowly drank the water and when he released the straw Tony put the glass next to the bed.

Tony just stared at Loki, who went back to holding himself as rigid as possible.

"How are you feeling?" Tony asked quietly, hoping he would maybe get an answer. He was a bit worried – yes, worried, what had the world come to?! – that they had missed an injury which prevented the demigod from talking.

When no answer came, Tony sighed and sat down near the foot of the bed.

"Listen, I promise no one here will intentionally hurt you. If there is anything wrong, you need to tell us, otherwise we can't help you."

Again, his charge remained silent. After a couple of more minutes of intense staring on Tony's part he decided to leave Loki alone for a while.

Tony went back into the living room, but let Jarvis run a livestream from the guestroom on his tablet. Just in case.

He was not sure who was more surprised by how he treated Loki: himself or the trickster. It was not really compassion, but he had promised (several times) that no harm would befall him while he was here. Tony might have a very strong dislike for Loki, but no human (or Aesir) should be treated this way, so Tony would try to wait with wishing death upon the other until he was somewhat coherent again.

Then there was the issue with Loki still not speaking. Tony had no idea whether it was because he did not want to talk or whether he simply could not talk. It was something he would have to bring up with Bruce.

His last thoughts before he fell asleep were about Bruce and his patient.

Rough hands were shaking his shoulders several hours later.

"Tony?"

Weird, it was almost as if someone was saying his name.

"Tony!"

He was more roughly shoved now and woke up with a start. The bright midday sun was streaming through the windows.

"Bruce?" Tony looked up startled to the man who had woken him up.

"You didn't get much sleep last night, did you?" Bruce questioned. Tony shook his head.

"I thought so. I have been here for a while now, but I thought if you are actually peacefully sleeping for once, I might as well let you."

Tony wanted to interrupt but Bruce just arched an eyebrow and continued.

"I have done the best I can to fixate Loki's femur, just to warn you, it's not pretty. I can't do much else for him at the moment. The other wounds look… well, not pretty, but so far there seems to be no infection. Apart from the one in his lips, you need to keep an eye on it."

"I wanted to talk with you about that, actually. Do you think there was another injury? One we did not notice?" When Tony said 'we' he obviously meant Bruce and Jarvis.

A frown marred Bruce's face and he sat down next to Tony.

"I don't think so, why are you asking?"

"I tried talking to him earlier, he was obviously awake, but there was no reaction whatsoever. He drank some water, too, but never once said anything to me." Tony did not like the fact that he actually sounded worried about Loki.

Bruce just slowly lifted both eyebrows. "Tony, have you seen his lips?" Tony nodded. "Can you imagine how painful that must be? I don't doubt that he could talk, but I suspect with all the other things he has going on, he probably won't want to make that pain worse as well."

"Are you sure?" Tony asked.

"Yes." Bruce looked grim.

"How can you be sure?"

"He screamed when I touched him."

Tony had turned pale. How had he slept through that?

"Have you tried to reach Thor again?" Bruce asked. Tony shook his head.

"I left messages with his girlfriend, but so far she hasn't called me back, nor has he ruined my ceiling by simply coming through. If he is not on earth, I am not sure how I can reach him."

Bruce was silent for a moment before getting up. "I am sure you will find something. Now excuse me, I really need to get going. And no, again, I won't stay here. I will come by regularly, check up on the both of you, but I really need to get going." Bruce usually liked spending time with Tony, but Loki screaming murder every time he touched him had gotten to him.

When Bruce had left, Tony stepped outside on his balcony where he had found Loki the day before. It already seemed so much longer than this.

Suddenly anger came over Tony. Where the fuck was Thor? He had no idea what to do!

He had no idea what came over him, but suddenly he started screaming at the blue sky.

"Thor! THOR! Move your ass down here, your fucking murderer brother is in my fucking tower!"

He seethed. "THOR!"

The blue sky turned grey all of a sudden, storm clouds seemed to appear from thin air and thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Oh fuck." Tony mumbled, quickly moving from his balcony. He did not fancy being smashed by Mjolnir by "accident".

Heavy rain started to fall and then suddenly, with a loud crash, it was over.

Seemed as if he had managed to get a hold of Thor after all.

5


End file.
